Dr Onnie Poe advocates for understanding behaviour as communication in Black children, highlighting racial disparities in disciplinary practices and urging adults to interpret actions beneath surface behaviour to promote supportive responses.
Black children are too often judged for what they do before adults stop to ask what those actions mean. That is the central argument from Dr Onnie Poe, an educator and mother of three, who says behaviour should be read as a form of communication, not treated only as a discipline problem. She writes that frustration can mask fear, disruption can hide embarrassment and anger may be covering grief.
Poe’s case is sharpened by long-running federal evidence on school discipline. The U.S. Government Accountability Office reported in 2018 that Black students made up 15.5% of public-school pupils but about 39% of those suspended, a gap it said was seen across different school settings and income levels. A later GAO report in 2024 found that Black girls were punished more harshly than White girls for similar behaviour, with exclusionary discipline rates several times higher.
That pattern, Poe argues, shows why adults must look beyond the surface of a child’s conduct. A refusal to read aloud may signal a learning difficulty. A child who seems withdrawn may be carrying stress from home. A student who appears indifferent may have learned that trying and failing in public feels worse than pretending not to care. Her point is not that harmful conduct should be ignored, but that consequences are more effective when they are paired with curiosity and support.
Her broader warning is aimed at parents, teachers and other adults who are trying to prepare Black children for a world that is often less forgiving of them. Poe says that survival lessons about respect, restraint and self-control can be protective, but they should not harden into suspicion inside homes and classrooms. The question she wants adults to ask first is simple: what is this child trying to communicate?
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